bellepepper

When I first spotted this recipe I thought it sounded interesting and a little different, so I decided to try it. Admittedly I tweaked it a bit, like many others. I used only one cup of cooked wild rice, which seemed like plenty to me. I decreased the flour to ¼ cup and increased the broth to 4 cups. I used a generous ½ cup of chopped onion instead of the minced onion, which I presumed meant dried onion. I also used milk for the half-and-half. Unfortunately I wasn’t terribly impressed with the outcome. It was good, but not great. Hubs, however, has already asked to have it again!

I made this almost exactly as written using a 14 oz. bag of coleslaw mix. I did add about 1/2 of a large carrot, shredded. This turned out very well and both Hubs and I enjoyed it. In fact, Hubs had three helpings and almost polished it off! I won't hesitate to make this one again! Thanks for the recipe!

I followed this recipe as written, with one exception, and that was replacing the Swiss chard with fresh spinach. I was intrigued with adding the dry pasta to the sausage mixture, which is why I decided to give this a try. Unfortunately it didn’t work well for me. I was concerned the pasta would absorb a lot of the broth, but I forged ahead anyway. I put this together just a few hours ahead and by the time I re-heated it, yep, nearly all the broth had been absorbed by the pasta. I had used a full four cups of broth, but ended up adding another full 14.5 oz. can while re-heating. The taste was ok, but I preferred it the next day, as the flavors had had more time to develop. My version yielded 4 large portions, not 2. If I make this again, I’ll cook the pasta separately and add it when re-heating.

After reading a number of the reviews for this recipe, I decided to give it a try. Like many others, I changed this up quite a bit. Here’s what I did. I made about half the recipe, using a splash of white wine for the lemon juice, half a can of the mushroom soup, freezing the other half, only ½ t. of Italian seasoning, milk for the half and half, and a 10 oz. box of frozen chopped spinach. I totally skipped the bacon bits, and cut the mozzarella in half. I cooked the spinach according to the package, cooled it, and squeezed out the excess liquid. I put that in the bottom of a 9x9 casserole. I sautéed the mushrooms and put them on top of the spinach. I wanted the chicken to have some color, so I browned one side only and put it on top of the mushrooms. I made the sauce pretty much as written, using the white wine I mentioned, and I put the mozzarella cheese in the sauce instead of on top of the casserole. I spooned the sauce over the chicken, covered and refrigerated this until I was ready to pop it in the oven. I left it covered and baked it at 350 for about 30 minutes. When I was making the sauce I thought it was too thick, but after it baked it seemed fine. We liked this combination very much, but if I make it again, I’d like to try a more flavorful cheese like Swiss.

I had a really hard time finding Italian chicken sausage, so I bought a plain chicken sausage and made this recipe. I didn’t have a yellow squash, so I used a zucchini instead, but otherwise followed the recipe. We liked this, but I have to say, the chicken sausage I used was totally flavorless and I think the soup would have been a lot better had I used sweet or hot Italian sausage. That, of course, is no fault of the recipe. So, if I make this again, I’ll use regular Italian sausage, hot would be my preference, or a hot Italian turkey sausage that we like.

I had high hopes for this, but in the end I was disappointed. I made half of the recipe and I followed it pretty closely. I did sub a can of diced tomatoes for the fresh tomatoes, but that was the only change I made. I was skeptical of the lengthy cooking time, so I checked it frequently. I started at a low simmer, uncovered, but after two hours a lot of the sauce had evaporated away, so I covered it for another half hour. At that point the meat was tender, but everything else was over cooked and practically falling apart. It had good flavor, but it needed more sauce. I should have covered it sooner. If I were to make this again, I would change the process by starting to cook the meat first and adding the vegetables later. I would also start cooking it covered and uncover it later to thicken the sauce.